Dark Match
by sandstorm99
Summary: Amy and Dan had just finished saving the world from the Vespers, but now a new force arises. The centaurs seek the help of the young pair, and are disappointed by their recklessness. Now they must train them and help them. But the force is gaining, and they must act soon if they should succeed.


**Dark Match**

Chapter 1

The hot summer sun bore down on Amy and Dan Cahill as they walked through the forest behind their mansion.

Amy quietly listened to the birds chirping, and looked at the passing animals. Recently, she had become interested in learning more about the nature. It was so peaceful and happy right now, usually the exact opposite of what she and her brother had to go through in their journeys to save the world.

While Amy was observing their surroundings with ease, Dan was concentrating on finding a clue, or a pattern, or a lead.

Last morning, a mysterious note had blew in through his window while Dan was doing his usual routines. He was in the middle of his karate chop on the blocks of wood, when a sudden note caught his attention and instead, he bruised his hand instead of chopping the wood. But that didn't matter. It was what was written that he cared about.

Dan snatched the paper out of the air with his good hand, and flipped it over. Of course, it was in code! Luckily, he was the master at this stuff.

_Wuelqoqoelfd hgtsov tselkijhov._

It took him all night to figure out, but he worked out an alphabet code. He first wrote out the whole alphabet, then started from the back and wrote the alphabet again toward the front, underneath. That didn't make sense, so he wrote the whole alphabet again. This time, he still started from the back, but each consonant goes to the consonant before it, and each vowel to the vowel before it._. _That didn't make much sense either. But his brain was wired for this stuff, and he merged the two together.

Now the message said, Ffoollooww tthhee hhoorrssee. That probably meant, follow the horse. It was probably just doubled in case he only figured one out.

An indignant part of him spoke up, 'Hey! Give me some more credit, I'm not called a child prodigy for nothing!'

But now, while they were walking along the path, Dan questioned that. He figured a horse would most likely come across here, because these places were wild, and you couldn't exactly follow a horse tied to a tree.

Suddenly, Amy screamed. "Dan! Help!" She looked perfectly fine to him, but her eyes were bulging and she was clawing at some invisible thing. Invisible.. INVISIBLE! That struck a light, this couldn't be a coincidence! Whoever told him to follow the horse must be working with the attacker.

Dan cleared his throat. "Follow the horse." He said, facing the direction of Amy and her attacker.

Slowly, Amy started breathing normally. "What, was that?" She panted out, giving Dan a pointed look and her famous evil eye.

Dan shrugged. "Just go after that invisible guy! Run dude!"

At his words, he heard the sound of hoof-steps, instead of human footsteps. He realized that this attacker was the note sender, and the note sender must be a horse! But that made no sense, after all, how else could it write? It needed to be human to do that! Only something half horse half human would make sense.

Dan wanted to face palm himself. Of course! A centaur! Things were getting better and better by the second.

Amy hissed at him. "If you don't tell me what's going on, I swear,-" She bumped into a wall before she could finish her sentence, and a deep cut formed on her head. "This better be good."

Hurriedly, Dan ripped off a part of his shirt to use as a bandage for her head. "Hey, didn't you get your head hurt a few months ago when you got crushed by a flying rock? Ha! We had to shave off parts of your hair just to make sure you lived!"

Amy's stomach clenched, and she was reminded of that terrible day when the world nearly turned into eternal chaos. Now this was just like a dumb reminder that she was powerless, and always running into bad luck.

"What's so funny anyways?" She growled, seeing Dan silently laughing hard, and pounding his fist on a rock.

"Oh, you just looked like a bald eagle for the next 3 months, even Jake was hesitant to touch your hair, or your head!"

Amy whipped out her pocket knife. "You have a problem with that?"

Dan coughed once, trying to get under control. "Yes, I do have a problem with my sister looking like a diva with long luscious hair." He was saying, that ever since they got the mansion, they were so filthy rich that they could afford to go to a salon every day for probably the rest of their lives! Because even if they ran out of money, the Cahill family was so big, one call could get them millions of money again!

Amy threateningly showed him her pocket knife. She paused, things had really changed her these few years. Before, she was just a school-girl in a poor apartment with no parents and just a cheap aunt who didn't like them much. Now she was a ninja that was threatening her brother with a pocket knife. Wow, Nellie, their baby-sitter, would be so proud of her!

Amy suddenly had this rebellious spark inside of her, she always wanted to do something totally Nellie and totally unexpected. Searching inside her knapsack, she looked for her food coloring. Sinead had told her to bring it, in case she needed to turn purple. At that time, it seemed hilarious, but now, hey, why not? She carefully slipped into the trees so Dan wouldn't see.

After she found a small puddle, she dropped the food coloring droplets in it. The puddle turned a rainbow shade of fun! Carefully, she dipped her hand into it, as she pulled it out, it was a tie-die rainbow color. She laughed to herself, what fun! While she was dipping her other arm in, a strand of hair fell in and turned green.

Dan quietly thought about everything he knew about centaurs while Amy disappeared. He needed to know what it wanted, and why it took them here. He was currently in the middle of his Greek mythology class in his brain, when Amy appeared in front of him. All he could do was gap.

She was sparkling, and every inch of her was died rainbow colors, and she teeth were gleaming white against it all. She even went Nellie hair style too! She cut her hair into short spikes that covered her head, and they were silver and gold.

"What in the world is wrong with you?" Dan asked, looking at Amy.

"Oh, I just wanted to have some fun." She replied, smiling.

Dan groaned. "Amy, there's a difference between fun, and totally out of the ballpark crazy. Now you're just crazy. Being rainbow is just.. ugh!"

While the two bickered, the invisible centaur lay hidden in the bushes, not far from them. His eyes narrowed, this was going to be tough. His master told him of powerful young children. But all he saw, was two foolish bickering kids, and totally reckless and immature. He expected more of them. Especially of the girl. At least the boy could crack a few codes. But all the girl had done was get hurt badly, and turn out to be totally crazy.

The centaur galloped back through a portal back to his master, and the sky turned black for a second, then normal again. This was the doing of the centaur, and that horse human was going to make Dan and Amy learn things the right way, whether they want it or not.


End file.
